PhD title for Francisco Sacchetti

On September 7th, TPRC researcher Francisco Sacchetti successfully defended his PhD dissertation at the University of Twente on the performance of welded thermoplastic composites.

The ability to assemble complex structures through welding is one of the key advantages of thermoplastic composites over their thermoset counterparts. It is an affordable alternative to adhesive bonding or fastening as it does not require the expensive surface preparations needed for the former or tedious drilling operations required for the latter.

The performance of the weld depends to a large extend on the microstructure at the weld interface, which then again depends on the processing conditions. Joint optimization is not straightforward when a proper understanding of the interrelation between microscructure and performance is lacking. Francisco addressed this issue in his dissertation through a systematical investigation of the effect of microstructural variations on joint toughness. More specifically, the influence of surface contamination prior to welding, bond line thickness, crystallinity and weave structure were addressed. Apart from significant contributions to the scientific community, his work provides industry guidelines for the manufacturing of reliable joints.

TPRC, the ThermoPlastic composites Research Center in the Netherlands, is an open innovation, research- and development center that aims for thermoplastic composites for a broad range of end use markets.